F is for flakes

Snowflakes that is.  This is out back at around 9:00 am this morning.

Jane is none too pleased:

Soon after this shot she was back inside sleeping in her house.  Likes her comfort does our Jane!

About an hour later:

Some of the flakes were almost the size of my palm.  HUGE!  Luckily it did melt quite quickly.  So happy that no shovelling was required.    Now that I’m 39 I have to save my energy and that means less manual labour.  As if.  You wait.  Next week, that lawn is going to want to be cut.  The hedges already want trimming.

Naughty knitting?

I’m currently working on the Roundtrip cardigan from Knitter’s, Fall 2003.  Today I finished the garter band and joined it to its beginning.  Then I laid it on the floor to take a pici:

Then I moved it around just a tiny bit and took another pici:

It’s about three feet across.  Is that not the biggest g-string you’ve ever seen?  Yeah, me too.  While I was getting ready to three needle bind off the start to then end of the garter strip hubby looks over and asks, “ummm, hon, what ARE you knitting?  ‘Cause that thing looks creepy.”

I’m an adult now!

‘Cause we have two whole rooms where everything matches! How cool is that? Here is the livingroom and it’s almost final element of matching tables:

But wait, there’s more! The coffee table does this:

You see, we had so given up on eating in the kitchen at a table that we actually took the kitchen table apart and put it in the basement to get it out of the way. Every meal was at the old coffee table sitting cross-legged on the floor and chowing down. As time has passed the hubby has expressed a certain amount of discomfort after each meal when he would have to get himself back up off said floor. This table solves all those problems. We technically eat at a table again AND we don’t have to sit on the floor. Nice!

I’m also working on the Roundtrip (Ravelry link) cardigan from the Fall 2003 Knitter’s. The Kureyon has been in my stash for about 4 or 5 years so I figured it had marinated long enough.

It sort of looks like your knitting a giant g-string though. I’ll feel better about it once the sleeves are started and it looks more sweaterly.

Spent the day getting house insurance, van insurance, and then running a load to the dump. Okay, it’s not really a dump anymore, it’s a waste transfer station. Have I mentioned that working there would be my dream job? You see, I’m nosy and a packrat so it would be heaven for me. Looking at all the stuff that people are throwing away! Getting first dibs if there was something cool!

Not much else going on this weekend. I did stop on the way home and buy a bit of Easter chocolate (did you know that Toblerone comes in a fruit & nut variety?) so perhaps a bit of chocolate, some knitting, and a bad movie for the evening. I believe hubby got I Am Legend so I think I’m all set.

Happy chocolate egg hunting everyone!

6 things

I’m tagged again!  Yarntails caught me for Six Quirky Non-important Things About Me.  Awesome, I love me some memes.

1.    I’m vaguely obsessive compulsive.  Not life stopping stuff but, the toilet paper has a ‘right’ way to be put on the holder, and bathroom towels must be hung ‘correctly’ over the shower rod.  If I find these things in the ‘wrong’ way, I will fix it, I just can’t help myself.

2.    Most of the foods I hate, I hate them because of texture, not flavour.  Examples:  tapioca pudding, mashed potatoes, liver, avocado, etc.

3.    Like Yarntails, once I am gripped with a new hobby or whatever really, I am a women obsessed.  I need every pieced of information/book/tool/etc. to do that hobby.

4.    I don’t like champagne.

5.    I just might has a smallish collection of beanie babies.  Chosen strictly on cuteness factors.  It all started with the bull terrier one, then I saw the sheep one, then the tie dyed bunny!  All down hill from there I’m afraid.

6.   I’m a closet optimist.  I secretly believe that everything will be alright and that people will do the right thing.  I’m daily amazed when presented with evidence to the contrary.

Now, I want to tag, Leone (I’m just helping her not buy yarn!), Whatifknits (even though Sarah Hope is on vacation), and Becky (who has been mysteriously quiet this past week!?!?!)

In a shop on the way to work:

How cute is that?  I do worry about it “bunching up” in the nether regions.  Sorry about the bad cellphone pici.

Long knitting quiz

How sweet is this? Leone is trying to keep me busy so I won’t go out and buy yarn. She’s so sweet! I’m totally winning our bet girl! Teehee. I’ve been tagged:

Have you knit….

Afghan – Yes

I-cord – Yes

Garter stitch – Yes

Knitting with metal wire – yes, I made candle holders

Shawl – Yes

Stockinette stitch – yes

Socks: top-down – yes – my favourite way

Socks: toe-up – yes, and I just didn’t like it

Knitting with camel yarn – yes.

Mittens: Cuff-up – yes

Mittens: Tip-down – no

Hat – yes

Knitting with silk a fine strand with wool for socks – umm, not getting it, going for no

Moebius band knitting – yes, very cool

Participating in a KAL – yes, a number of sockapaloozas

Sweater – Yes

Drop stitch patterns – Yes

Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn – Yes

Slip stitch patterns – no

Knitting with banana fiber yarn – hmmm, no

Twisted stitch patterns – Yes

Knitting with bamboo yarn – no

Charity knitting – Yes

Knitting with soy yarn – no

Cardigan – Yes.

Toy/doll clothing – yes, and, I have Barbie dolls. Wanna make something of it?

Baby items – Yes

Knitting with your own handspun yarn – Yes

Slippers – Yes

Designing knitted garments – yes

Cable stitch patterns – Yes

Lace patterns – Yes

Publishing a knitting book – Yeah, um, no!

Scarf – Yes

Teaching a child to knit – Yes

Knitting to make money – No

Buttonholes – Yes

Knitting with alpaca – Yes

Fair Isle knitting – Yes

Dying with plant colors – No

Knitting items for a wedding – no

Household items (dishcloths, washcloths, tea cosies…) – Yes

Knitting socks (or other small tubular items) – Yes

Knitting with someone else’s handspun yarn – yes, pre-Lendrum days.

Holiday related knitting – yep, Christmas presents and a Hallowig for dressing up at the office.

Teaching a male how to knit – nop

Bobbles – nope

Knitting for a living – nope

Knitting with cotton – Yes

Knitting smocking – yes

Dying yarn – yes

Knitting art – Hmmmm, I don’t think so

Fulling/felting – Yes

Knitting with wool – Yes

Textured knitting – yes

Kitchener stitch – Yes

Purses/bags – gosh yes, love bags!

Knitting with beads – a little bit

Swatching – Yes

Long Tail CO – Yes- I just learned how a few months ago. Only used cable caston before that.

Knitting and purling backwards – nope

Knitting with self patterning/self striping/variegated yarn – yes, yummy

Stuffed toys – no

Knitting with cashmere (mmm, cashmere!) – Yes

Darning – yes

Jewelry – No.

Knitting with synthetic yarn – Yes.

Writing a pattern – yes

Gloves mittens are warmer! – only mittens, the thought of knitting fingers makes me feel light headed.

Intarsia – no

Knitting with linen – yes

Knitting for preemies – No

Short rows – Yes

Cuffs/fingerless mits/armwarmers – yes

Pillows – no

Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine – oh yeah!

Rug – yes

Knitting on a loom – No

Knitting a gift – yes

Knitting for a pet? – yes

Shrug/bolero/poncho – yeppers

Knitting with dog/cat hair accidentally or on purpose? – all items from my home are 5% dog and/or cat hair. You’re lucky if there isn’t a cockatiel feather stuck in it too!

Hair accessories – yes

Knitting in public – Whenever possible. Freaks out the muggles.

Knitting with buffalo yarn – no.

Knitting with pygora – no

Dyeing with food dye/drink mixes – you bet

Dyeing with chemical dyes (acid, etc) – yes, then I used a vegetable steamer to cook it.

And now I tag, Louisa, Lauren, and Lavender. It’s a day of L’s.

E is for Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeekkkkkkkkk!!!!

Grouse Mountain gondola ride picture from the top. I almost threw up I was so scared.

Mom looked a little green too.

No more Home & Garden TV for you!

The husband, he’s sort of freaking me out.  Phrases like “tasteful decorator piece”, “rich browns”, “making our space flow”, and others just seem to roll from his tongue lately.  The man is in full decorator mode and there is no stopping him.  We did get “rich brown” drapes and our living room tables arrived a week early so that was nice.  I’ll try to get a pici today.

The fibrefest was good but I hear it may be the last one.  Lack of turnout and such.  I’m getting the feeling it was lack of organization creating lack of turnout, but whatever.  I put in a pantry of fibre.  All the staples.  Three colours of Shetland, Finn, South African, Wensleydale, Suri alpaca, and Icelandic.  Then I picked up my order from Yummy Yarn.  Gorgeous!  Eight ounces of Gummy Worms.  So happy.  Then I picked up the wee bags of designer fibres.  Little two ounce bags of cashmere/silk and merino/alpaca/cashmere and four ounces of carbonized bamboo.  Apparently it’s heated until the fibre carbonizes and turns grey.  It’s the exact colour of ash.  Very silky and pretty.

Today, I’m hemming drapes.  Whoo hoo!  And, I need to find a pici for “E” as today is the last day of “E” for the ABC Along.  Hmmmmm.  E is for exhaustion? 

D is for…

Dogs days at the river:

Phew, cut that one pretty close!

Loving it

So happy with the new room.  It doesn’t even feel like it’s in our house to be perfectly honest with you.  Here are a few shots of how it used to look:

Super awesome 1996 border!  Special order, waited 3 weeks for that baby and it cost $35.00 a roll.  Ugg.

The futons, circa 1993 or so.  To be honest, we totally got our money out of those babies.

Amazingly bad paint.  Same year as the border.  Nice, right?  We tried a little faux finish.  Yeah, that was a huge mistake.  So huge we did wallpaper over the bottom half of the whole wall and covered it up.  We had both forgotten (blocked out) that it was even there.  Boy were we surprised when we took the wallpaper off.

And then these things happened:

New sub-floor, two coats of paint on the ceiling and two coats of primer on the walls (three over those burgundy bits.  Shudder).

A bit of colour, two coats.

Then a bit of flooring.  As an aside, I do not recommend laying an entire floor in 3.5 hours flat.  I don’t care if Survivor is on at 8:00 and the hubby REALLY wants to watch it.  Very hard on the knees & wrists.    You’ve been warned.

Then the pretty new couches came to our house.  Swoon!

His

Ignore the blanket on the floor.  We have to get a nice dog bed for Janey.  I sense Pet-smart in my future.

Hers

Left to do:  baseboards, end tables, lights, tile the front hallway, clean the fireplace bricks, re-grout the slate on the hearth, crown mouldings, etc. etc. etc.  Oh, then we move on to the kitchen.

There isn’t any knitting on it yet but there sure will be soon.  Actually, there will be right now.  Y’all have a good afternoon.    I’m going to make tea and try this new couch out in the standard knitting position.

Oh, and thank you everyone for such lovely comments about my hand-spun.  I was blushing all over the place.  You spinners out there, go get some Fleece Artist Blue Face Leicester.  It is truly lovely stuff.